It’s not all that easy to identify these enemies. The game now afoot amounts to a scavenger hunt for the scholarly, clues supplied by the late curator, whose intent was to enlighten Sophie and bedevil her enemies. Aided by the murdered man’s granddaughter, Langdon flees the flics to trudge the Grail-path along with pretty, persuasive Sophie, who’s driven by her own need to find answers. And besides, they don’t particularly like Americans. The evidence against Langdon could hardly be sketchier, but the cops feel huge pressure to make an arrest.

When Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon-in Paris to deliver a lecture-has his sleep interrupted at two a.m., it’s to discover that the police suspect he’s a murderer, the victim none other than Jacques Saumière, esteemed curator of the Louvre. At least, so the story goes in this latest of Brown’s exhaustively researched, underimagined treatise-thrillers ( Deception Point, 2001, etc.). But if your heart belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, the Grail is more than just unholy, it’s downright subversive and terrifying. If you’re a member of that most secret of clandestine societies, the Priory of Sion, you think yes. In an updated quest for the Holy Grail, the narrative pace remains stuck in slo-mo.īut is the Grail, in fact, holy? Turns out that’s a matter of perspective. The ending brings heartbreaking twists to prime readers for the trilogy’s conclusion. While many of the physically intimate scenes are loving, some are rougher, including ones that cross lines of clear consent and introduce a level of violence that many young readers will not be ready for. The multiethnic cast (human versus angelic is the only divide with weight) includes characters of many sexual orientations, and their romantic storylines include love triangles, casual dalliances, steady couples, and couples willing to invite in a third. The rigid alternation between time-separated storylines initially feels overstuffed, undermining tension, but once more characters get point-of-view chapters and parallels start paying off, the pace picks up. A thousand years in the future, Eliana chafes under her unwanted destiny and finds her fear of losing herself to her powers (like the Blood Queen) warring with her need to save those close to her. Newly ordained Rielle contends with villainous Corien’s interest in her, the weakening gate that holds the angels at bay, and distrust from those who don’t believe her to be the Sun Queen. Giving readers only brief recaps, this book throws them right into complicated storylines in this large, lovingly detailed fantasy world filled with multiple countries, two different time periods, and hostile angels. In the sequel to Furyborn (2018), Rielle and Eliana struggle across time with their powers and prophesied destinies.

Kingsbane